Open Graph meta tags describe how a web page should appear when it is shared in social feeds, chat apps, bookmarks, or other preview surfaces. They do not change the visible page itself. They provide metadata that external services can use to build a link preview.
Start with four OGP fields
The core fields to check first are og:title, og:description, og:image, and og:url. When these are clear and fetchable, external services have a much better chance of showing the right page title, summary, image, and canonical URL.
<meta property="og:title" content="Page title" />
<meta property="og:description" content="Short page description." />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/ogp.png" />
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/page" />OGP is different from title and meta description
The HTML title and meta description are often written with search results in mind. Open Graph metadata is written for shared previews. The same text can work in both places, but the preview context is different because an image, source label, crop, and platform UI are involved.
Open Graph checklist
- og:title is present and readable
- og:description matches the page content
- og:image is an absolute URL and can be fetched publicly
- og:url matches the canonical page URL
- old metadata is not left behind after template changes
Open Graph metadata should be checked whenever routes, templates, image generation, or canonical URLs change. Use the TOOLPOOL OGP Checker to extract OGP-related meta tags from a public URL and confirm the basic preview data before publishing.